Ashbourne: Rain for now, and possibility of Hurricane Bertha later

ASHBOURNE will be hit with bursts of heavy rain all afternoon and hail showers tonight, according to the Met Office.

The unsettled weather is expected to last until 3pm. After a cloudy break, heavy showers are then expected between 7pm and 8pm, with hail arriving later.

Temperatures will peak at 19C from 6pm until 8pm.

And to add to the gloomy outlook, forecasters at the Met Office are examining the possibility of a hurricane, called Hurricane Bertha, heading towards Derbyshire and the rest of the UK.

They say the hurricane is currently in the Carribean and could hit Europe over the next week.

A spokesman for the Met Office said: "While all forecast models suggest the storm will head in the general direction of UK and continental Europe, there remains a lot of uncertainty about exactly what it will do.

"One certainty is that as the storm heads north away from the very warm seas which drive its power, it will lose strength and become what’s known as an extra-tropical storm – so we won’t be seeing a 'hurricane in Europe', but there is a chance we could see a fairly active summer storm."

He added: "In terms of timing, there’s also a spread of possibilities – but it looks likely that the earliest Bertha would affect the UK would be on Sunday or into the start of next week."